photo-eye Gallery
Portfolio: Keith Carter – Ghostland
photo-eye Gallery is excited to open Ghostland, an exhibition of new work by Texas based photographer Keith Carter with an artist reception and book signing tomorrow, July 11th, from 3–5pm.
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| Installation View – Keith Carter: Ghostland |
photo-eye Gallery is excited to open
Ghostland, an exhibition of new work by Texas based photographer Keith Carter with an artist reception and book signing tomorrow, July 11th, from 3–5pm. Corresponding with the exhibition photo-eye is launching a
new online portfolio of work by Carter from the Ghostland series including more than 20 images. The series, beginning in 2012, represents a bold new direction for Carter while maintaining his signature poetic sensibilities with a particular focus on the swamplands of the American South.
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| Keith Carter – Photographed by Sam Keith, 2013 |
For more than 30 years Keith Carter has used traditional photographic materials to create an extended portrait of the Southern identity. Far from straight documentary, Carter’s black-and-white images echo with notes of religion, Southern Folklore, mythology, and whimsy, and have been featured in over 11 monographs — including, most recently 2011’s reprint of
From Uncertain to Blue. When asked about the development of his personal photographic voice, Carter once said: “I come out of a documentary tradition, but after awhile I wanted to put my own stamp on things. It became clear to me that the subject matter I really cared about had to do with a sense of place, of geography, of the animal world, of the spiritual world and the elements of theology and folklore.”
In 2011, Carter began working in antique and alternative processes, eschewing his near ubiquitous medium format camera to create images as wet-plate collodion tintypes. This exploration in process and style lead to Carter’s newest body of work
Ghostland, and we are pleased to feature Carter’s exquisite
BogDog tintype, among others. In Carter’s own words:“The
BogDog tintype was made as part of an ongoing series called
Ghostland; an exploration of the ecological and spiritual peculiarities found in Southern Wetlands. I think of it as a kind of intersection where a Darwinian wonderland might meet magical realism. Slow exposures are inherent in historical processes such as tintypes, and the relative sharpness is mostly luck. The magnificent animal is not.”
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| Installation View – Keith Carter: Ghostland |
While describing
Ghostland, New Orleans art critic and journalist D. Eric Bookhardt notes that “Carter delves into the rich recesses of mythology and the human psyche to explore the common threads of human and animal attraction, reminding us that we are products of the same earth.” A natural storyteller,
Ghostland is Cater's Gothic. The dark pallet, pewter color, and textured patina of the plates remove the images from their everyday context, lending them an almost supernatural aura and places them firmly in the realm of myth and memory. Hung in the 19th century salon-style,
Ghostland unfolds without linearity. Tight in proximity, the images begin to inform and enhance one another as viewers eyes flicker from plate to plate, building unique and personal narrative experiences.
Ghostland is on view at photo-eye Gallery through August 22, and includes more than 40 framed tintypes as well as a selection of silver gelatin prints from previous projects. Please join us tomorrow from 3-5 pm for the exhibition opening and book signing where Carter will be available to sign copies of his monographs:
A Certian Alchemy,
Ezekiel's Horse,
Fireflies,
From Uncertian to Blue, and a limited number of the sold out
Holding Venus. If you are unable to attend and would like a personalized or signed copy of any of these titles please contact Lucas Shaffer at 505-988-5152 x 114 or
lucas@photoeye.com.
View the Ghostland portfolio
Read the Exhibition Intoducation for Keith Carter: Ghostland
For more information, and to purchase prints please contact Gallery Director Anne Kelly at 505-988-5152 x 121 or anne@photoeye.com
